Guernica:

This is one of the most famous paintings by Picasso, it is called the

“Geurnica”. It was originally created to express the hatred he had for the
Nazi bombings in Basque city, in spain. Since then, this painting has
been iconic, for it’s meaning and for the black and white canvas itself. It
became a symbol for the genocide commited during the wartime. In the
painting, you can see animals, humans, and pain. When looking at the
painting, you can clearly see the victims, and those who have lost a lot. I
can also see a sun/eye on the top of the painting, this could represent
god, who was looking at them, and how they may have lost faith in him.

I can also see that he used his own style and the cubism style in the
painting. The flat faces on the painting, really bring out the pain and
terror, it could represent how everything seemed so black and white
from the outside, but when you look in depth you can see how humans,
a really special creature, turn onto each other because of their pride, and
how far they can go, until you realise how horrible this issue is. The
scene shown in the Guernica is a room full of moving, screaming and
dying adults, children and animals. Most of the images are also symbols.
On the left, a bull pierced by jagged shards or objects.

Letter to museum:
Dear ____,

My name is Eline van Mullekom, and I believe that my art piece

should be on the peace and conflict exhibition because my
conflict that I am painting, is the curacao uprising, a
horrible time, where people rose up for fair employment, and
non racial descrimination. I thoroughly showed this in my
artwork because I used signs, and smoke, which would represent
the damage made by the citizens. I used a skull in my
painting, because no matter what skin colour, gender identity,
sexual orientation, everyone is still a human, no matter what.
From the outside, my piece looks like it only focuses on the
conflict section, but when you take a closer look, and you
realise that I actually added a peace part in there. I did a
lot of research on things that symbolise peace. Which I then
realised, that flowers are a big sign of peace. I did not want
to use a dove, because I look around and a lot of people are
already doing that, and it would not make mine stand out.
Instead I used a flower. I chose the white poppy as my flower.
I learnt that the flower symbolises peace, consolation and dreams.
It also represents modernism. I think that this flower is a good
idea because it symbolises the dreams of those who wanted to create
change, those who wanted equal rights and the dreams of the
children, who wish to be what they want to be when they grow up.
Modernism is also smart, because right now, we live in a modern
society, back then, the people did not know if they were able to
live in this type of society, yet they still tried their best. The
poppy is quite common, but I still think that it holds a lot of
meaning. White poppies are worn to represent the Peace Pledge Union.
They are also used to remember those victims in the war, and to
celebrate the wars that we have won.